"I'm going to make 5000 keys and none of them will be jewelry!"

Third Key

This key was part of the dozen keys I made on that inspiration filled day in July. I don’t have a very clear picture of it – either in my photo albums or in my mind. I don’t even remember everything that went into it except for one part – the “jewels” on this key are from a necklace I bought at a friend’s garage sale.

I can see from the photo that it’s made using one of the skinnier bolts I had in my collection that day, includes lots of stuff from the road (like washers), some rings, some chain, and a very rusted, very cheap shower curtain ring. At least I think it’s a shower curtain ring – it might be a clip-on-ring used for some other purpose (it’s on the backside of the key – shaped kind of like an original light bulb*) – my husband often finds these on the road; so, like, why would a clip-on-shower curtain ring be on the road? Wouldn’t it make more sense for things that are found on the road to have some sort of purpose that requires them to be carried across a road on a regular enough basis that they would occasionally get lost there?

…

I was fortunate to meet a very fine person – H – through work. He and his family lived in the neighbourhood next to mine. For many good reasons that family moved away. For many good reasons the community wished they would have stayed.

This key was a gift to H so that he and his family would know that they had a key from/to the city that loved them so much. The jewels on this key were from that family’s garage sale.

Pretty sure they don’t know that.

*meaning those ones that were around for the last 50 years before this explosion of LED and halogen and whatever those hideous twisty-ones-that-turned-out-to-not-actually-be-good-for-the-environment-so-no-one’s-really-using-them-anymore-and-didn’t-they-cast-a-hideous-light-anyway were called.